About a week ago, we were talking about IBM vs Apple for the first time, and back then, it was more about a rumor, than something certain. Shortly, Mark Papermaster got a full year's salary promised by IBM for a very simple task - do nothing, simply stay away from Apple. That's a very tempting offer, but it seems Mr' Papermaster had other plans already, and now this entire story becomes really interesting...
...since on the 4th of November, Apple issued a press release announcing that "Mark Papermaster Joins Apple as Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering." If you don't like reading press releases, here's the interesting part of it all:
"Apple® today announced that Mark Papermaster is joining the Company as senior vice president of Devices Hardware Engineering, reporting to Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
Apple also announced that Tony Fadell, Apple’s senior vice president of the iPod Division, and his wife Danielle Lambert, vice president of Human Resources, are reducing their roles within the company as they devote more time to their young family. Fadell will remain at Apple as an advisor to the CEO. Lambert will depart the company at the end of this year after a successor is in place."
OK, so what about IBM and that lawsuit they had in store for Mark? Just this - Friday evening, Federal District Judge Kenneth Karas in White Plains ordered that Mark Papermaster "immediately cease his employment with Apple Inc until further order of this court," and that's it.
For now, Apple's response is "We will comply with the court's order but are confident that Mark Papermaster will be able to ultimately join Apple when the dust settles," and I must confess this story is pretty strange to me. Anyway, sooner or later, "his Steveness" will grab Mark Papermaster to join Apple, I am sure of that!
